A lost subway that made walking into the heart of Liverpool easier will be remembered by city centre shoppers from the 1980s and '90s.
Lime Street underwent a major transformation in the mid-noughties which included the complete remodelling of Lime Street Station and the demolition of Concourse House next to it. It was also during this period that an underpass that ran underneath Lime Street straight to St Johns Shopping Centre was closed.
Work on the pedestrian subway began in 1967 during a period of considerable redevelopment of central Liverpool which included the building of St Johns Shopping Precinct. Tunnelling under Lime Street while the traffic continued flowing overhead was deemed impracticable and so the subway was cut out of the roadway in sections and later covered over.
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As work went ahead, Liverpool ECHO readers wrote into the newspaper to suggest names for the subway. Some of the names included: King John's Way (a reference to King John's charter founding Liverpool in 1207), Lime Kiln Way, Sublime Way, Whackers' Way, Judy Jigger and Codman's Way - named after the Codman family who operated the Punch and Judy show on Lime Street for over 130 years.
However, the eventual name chosen by Liverpool Council was Market Subway. The uninspired name caused some people in the city to claim the council had missed an opportunity to name the subway after a celebrated part of the city's history.
One angry ECHO reader said: "The name Market Subway chosen for the subway under Lime Street has no originality or style. Why not make it 'Sublime Way' which gives it a bit more class and at the same time and reminds us under which street we are walking?"
Either way, Market Subway didn't stick and very few people remember its official name. Pedestrians could access the subway directly outside Lime Street Station via a long ramp or set of stone steps.
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The subway lead underneath the flowing traffic of Lime Street straight where pedestrians could take an escalator straight up into St John's Shopping Centre. Originally, the subway itself was designed to an interesting walk and not just a tunnel, with spaces for shops to occupy.
But things did not get off to a great start for the shopkeepers who had taken units inside the subway. By September 1971, only three of the five units had been let with shop owners asking for reductions in their rent due to the amount of people using the subway being well below the expected level.
With work on St Johns precinct still ongoing there were problems also exiting the subway. In addition, there had also been reports of theft and vandalism in the secluded underpass shortly after the first shop had opened.
In January 1974, the Liverpool ECHO ran a story under the headline 'Fear Stalks The Subways'. The chairman of Liverpool and Bootle Police authority had commented that subways in the city posed a threat of vandalism and muggings.
It was reported the chairman had been requested to ask police at a council meeting to keep a special watch on the pedestrian subway at Lime Street Station. At the same time, a tobacconist in one of the subway units was given his rent free for a year after having to install roller shutters to combat vandalism.
Interviews in the subway conducted by the ECHO just after the chairman had made his comments found that women in particular were afraid of using the subway after the shopping centre closed for the night leaving the underpass in "semi-darkness".
From the 1970s through to the late 1980s, several incidents of crime in the subway, including theft and robbery, were reported in the Liverpool Echo. However, many people also remember the subway for its characters, and in particular the buskers, that used to frequent it.
Does Lime Street's pedestrian subway awaken any memories for you? Let us know in the comments section below.
The subway was eventually closed as many areas of Liverpool city centre were transformed during the Capital of Culture in 2008. As the Lime Street Gateway was remodelled, the underpass to St Johns was shut and filled in.
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